Road Trip

OK, I’ve sequestered myself for long enough. It’s time to get out of the house. I need a change of scenery.

So today I’m taking off with the truck, sleeping bag and espresso pot to head further south. Plan to visit FabGrandma in Brenda, then go to Quartzsite to look at pretty rocks and beads for a couple of days.

I’m taking the laptop, but who knows if I’ll use it. I promise to take lots of pics.

Espresso Deal

Berta and I went to Prescott yesterday morning for her eye appointment. Then had the rest of the day to play. Which for us is, hit the Thrift Stores, and lunch at Maya.

At St Vincent De Paul’s I bought this...

Stainless steel "moka" maker, makes from 3-9 cups of cappuccino, and it also steams the milk, or in my case the heavy whipping cream. Yummmmm! Original price online, $89.95. My price, $8.

It certainly won’t replace my electric espresso machine. But sure will be nice when I’m away from home. I just can’t face the day without a jump start, almond mocha breve.

Oregon Caves tour (Part two)

For My World Tuesday click here.



Welcome back to Oregon Caves National Monument. If you didn’t leave the cave at the 110 exit then there’s about 400 more stairs to go. Click here for first part of cave tour.

Cathedral Arch

Caves actually get more beautiful with age.

Banana Grove

Niagara Falls

Up until 1886 Niagara Falls was the end of the cave. Then one day Walter Burch felt a breeze and found a small hole which he enlarged. He had to crawl through in his longjohns to get through, pushing his clothes in front of him and carrying a candle for light.
Walter climbed about 30 feet down a rope and crawled through the “blow hole” ....

Blow hole passage. Big stalagmite called the wishing post was once rubbed by every visitor.

...and found himself in what is now called Miller’s Chapel.

Miller’s Chapel

Named after Joquin Miller, also known as the poet of the Sierras, who helped the cave become protected in 1909. The “Chapel” part, because of a wedding.

Historic photo from NPS archives

Time to move on to the largest room in the cave.

Leaving Miller’s Chapel

The Ghost Room

Welcome to the Ghost Room, the size of a football field. Sorry no ghosts. From here we’ll be making a side trip...

Stairs up to Paradise Lost

...climbing about 90 steps round trip. You can pass on this if you want, but....

Paradise Lost

From the Ghost Room floor we are about 150 feet underground. It’s all uphill from here.

Angel Falls

Entering the Wedding Cake Room

We’re on the last leg of our journey and will be passing through more human blasted tunnels and natural cave.

Broken flowstone shows calcite crystal formation

Black bear bones

During reconstruction of the trail in 1998 black bear bones dating 3,000 years old were discovered. Many fossils of small animals have been found near cave openings. But the oldest bones belong to a 38,000 year old jaguar discovered not far from the Ghost Room in the early 1990s.

Exit tunnel and air-lock door

If we can just make it through this door we’ll see the light of day again.

Looking out cave exit

I’ll bet you figured we’d never make it out of the cave. We only saw about one third of the total cave, the rest requires much crawling and climbing. There’s three and a half miles of cave passages. So, do you want to go back in and crawl around?

Looking back at cave exit

My World Tuesday - The gypsy life of a seasonal park ranger

Desert sunset

Ah, the winter desert was beautiful to walk through and the sunsets were spectacular. (See last week’s My World.) Yet as spring approached I knew it was time to head back to the Northwest and return to work as a cave guide at Oregon Caves National Monument.

Oregon Caves Chalet houses the Visitor Center & dormitory above. (Sorry the pano is contorted, the building is not bent.)

When I arrived in March there was still snow.

View into the Siskiyou Mountains from Lake Mt.

Yet it soon melted and the beauty of spring and summer slipped away, mostly underground.

Calcite deposit formations, Oregon Caves National Monument

Carson and I went hiking after work almost every day; the forest was right outside our door.

Carson in Lake Creek, Siskyou National Forest

Sometimes I’d hike on the monument where he couldn’t go along.

Big Tree trail, Douglas fir has widest girth in Oregon

As fall approached I decided to...(See next week’s My World Tuesday for the continued story of the gypsy life of a season Park Ranger.)

For more glimpses of life around the world please go to My World Tuesday or click here.


For a virtual cave tour, scroll down.

Oregon Caves tour (Part one)

Welcome to Oregon Caves National Monument. We are about to go on a virtual cave tour here.

The main entrance of four natural cave entrances